CP3 went full on game 5 of the 2018 WCF mode. What can you do? Roco played extremely well tonight. Stupid thread.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Of course, I've biased by Nate Duncan, who has been mentioning this on his podcast during the regular season, restart, and playoffs. And then then also heard this from David Thorpe on a podcast. And so I've been biased in to believing it and when I see it with my eyes, every on-ball defensive mistake stays in my brain. So I guess good is relative, but he ain't no Eric Gordon or Austin Rivers, who both get beat, but at a much lesser rate than him. My second point stands. Sometimes the Rockets too easily accept the switch when it's not that great of a screen. They're just so rigid...they're effective and good at the system, but a little flexibility would help. At least start him on Dort and have him hedge and recover. Dort or Adams running downhill on a 4-3 scramble ain't no Draymond in terms of playmaking.
He just can't handle small guards at all. This shocked me, but he routinely gets absolutely dusted by Schroder and CP3. Harden did MUCH better on CP3 then RoCo did. Other than that he was really solid on everybody else tonight, and he was hitting his 3's. Odd, but clearly, small guards are a big weakness for him.
Have heard scouts describe him as possibly the best off ball/help defender in the league but a surprisingly below average on ball guy. Just doesn’t have the lateral quickness.
Let’s be very clear: Roco vs SGA and Roco vs CP3 are two completely different matchups. One blows right by him. One makes impossible shots while well defended.
This is definitely reactionary, but it was just a dumb strategy or bad awareness by RoCo not to get closer. Let him blow by, just don't give up that 3. Everybody in the world who watches the NBA knows CP3 likes that shot late in the 4th. It's like we don't even agree with our strategy of a 3 over a 2. We should try to limit as many threes as possible.
absolutely correct. harden is a better on the ball defender that Cov. Cov does better guarding ppl like galinari who don't have the lateral quickness to get by him. But what do you expect from Cov? he's still better than Capela at guarding the perimeter and is essentially our center. He's still better than westbrook who doesn't even rotate to Galinari and gives him an open 3. There aint many centers who can guard CP3 on the perimeter, especially with this ability to draw contact and flop and get the call. This makes players give him room. Covington is not the reason we lost. Yes ariza is a better on the ball defender, but he's not as good at guarding the paint. The thunder have 3 point guards on the perimeter. There's no team that can defend them all well. they are that quick. covington is playing the way the rockets want him to play, so harden can rest on defense. that's not his fault.
Our defense was great all game we lost cuz we couldn’t score. if Eric Gordon doesn’t find his shot and Westbrook doesn’t start playing like pre bubble Westbrook. It doesn’t really matter who we have we are not winning a thing.
Crazy that last year this dude couldn't even beat big man off the dribble or create enough space for a shot, how he's torching one of our best perimeter defenders.
CP3 is considered one of the best guards that is currently playing the game. He's incredibly savvy and very mentally tough. It's hard to keep a guy like him down. He abused Covington and Green but he's abused a lot of people over his career. Overall our D still played well and forced a lot of turnovers. Just needed to cut down the mental mistakes at the other end.
Ariza would never touch get into Rythym that was his brilliance. Covington foot work needs work he should watch tape on Scottie Pippens footwork. All that being said tou have to physically challenge ole man cp3 better. Honestly James guarded the mess out of Cp3 he didn't want no Harden
RoCo is just an average/solid perimeter defender.. but he excels in our defensive scheme because he is an ELITE help defender. It's not like cp3 was crossing him up and blowing by him, he just managed to create enough space to be able to drain clutch, contested 3's over him... Face it cp3 simply stepped up and we did not.
he has quick feet and the long arms. but he is not the most intelligent defender. for instance, doesn't force the opponent into uncomfortable footwork off rhythm. ariza was miles ahead of him
actually he did blow by him a couple of times... its mind boggling he couldnt do that to Bogut, Jerebko and Kevon Looney .. and its not like he did it once, he did it whenever he wanted and vice versa i cant remember cp3 torching gsw player once last year...
He has league best hands, and is very intelligent. He has the length to bother big players and shooter. He is absolutely terrible at staying in front of guards. Lateral quickness is lacking and he defends with his hands instead of his feet and becomes a foul volcano.
